Francois Guizot

Francois Guizot (4 October 1787 – 12 September 1874) was a French statesman who dominated the politics of France during the July Monarchy, serving under the "citizen-king" Louis Philippe I. He held a number of posts in the government, including French ambassador to the United Kingdom, minister of education, minister of foreign affairs, and finally Prime Minister in 1847–48. In his position he was a conservative liberal who worked to sustain the constitutional monarchy under King Louis Philippe. However, it was his ban on public meetings that led to the revolution of 1848 and the formation of the French Second Republic. Throughout his lifetime he saw the Ancien Regime, French First Republic, French Consulate, First French Empire, the Bourbon Restoration, the July Monarchy, and the Second Republic.

Biography
Born to a bourgeois Protestant family, Guizot saw his father being executed during the Reign of Terror in 1794. Nonetheless he became a liberal and entered journalism and literary pursuits during the following decade, and throughout the reign of Napoleon I. During that time he published a number of works on history and the French language before being recommended to serve in the government of Louis XVIII during the first Bourbon Restoration. He quit that post and returned to his literary works in 1815 during Napoleon's brief return. After the Hundred Days, Guizot went on to hold a number of posts in the restored Bourbon government and acted as an advisor, believing that liberal policies would prevent the fall of the monarchy—a middle path between absolutism and popular government. He went on to advise the government of King Charles X and published a number of works on the history of France and England.

During the 1830 revolution, Guizot called on the Chamber of Deputies to adopt more liberal reforms, which led Charles X to call for new elections. But his fall was imminent by then. Throughout the 1830s he held some posts in the new government of Louis Philippe I of the House of Orleans, during which Guizot advocated for a limited monarchy controlled by a limited bourgeois. He was appointed ambassador in London, and became popular in English circles, strengthening a Franco-British alliance. In 1840 Guizot became the foreign minister and ensured a Franco-British detente remained, but it became unpopular. A series of intrigues in 1846 regarding Spain and the Spanish monarchy led to the destruction of this alliance with Britain, however.

Guizot became prime minister in 1847 but ultimately nothing was accomplished, and the monarchy he sought to protect collapsed the following year. He was forced to resign around that time and fled to England before returning to France and resuming his literary work.